Ponting To Undergo Surgery And Miss England ODIs

Australian captain Ricky Ponting is to undergo surgery on a fractured finger on his left hand as he bids to recover from the injury which forced him out of the remainder of the Ashes series.

He was unable to play in the ongoing fifth and final Test in Melbourne, which ended a run of 73 straight appearances for his country and he is set to miss the One-Day International series with England but is aiming to recover in time for the World Cup, which gets underway on 19th February.

"Ricky had further x-rays today on his fractured finger which have shown that the bone fragment has further displaced and will not heal without surgery," Cricket Australia (CA) physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said.

"As such Ricky will have surgery tomorrow. He is expected to miss the Commonwealth Bank One-Day International series against England and recover in time for the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup."